Hypnagogia
by indydutch
Summary: A short story describing something of which many people have had, the title is the key.


Hypnagogia

I wake up in a dank, dark room filled with strange paintings, it smells of something rotten. I have a raging headache and my leg feels painful. I examine my leg and find that I have a large gash in my calf about six inches across; I wince in pain and look around. I see two small boarded up windows to my left; to my right I see a door which appears to have to kicked down; in front of me there is a wall covered in grotesque paintings which seem to be hundreds of years old; behind me there is another wall with a large, broken embroidered mirror on it.

I slowly, and painfully rise and try to gather myself as best I can. There is dusty furniture everywhere; it looks like it has been rotting for ages. I turn to my left and walk up to one of the boarded windows, I look outside and see a Victorian era esk scene of streets and buildings, I look to be ten stories from the street. It looks as if nearly every building around is the same as the one I am in now; windows boarded and very old. I turn around and look through the door into the next room; I wander close to the room and notice that it is almost identical to the one I am in; moldy furniture, dust everywhere, and boarded windows. I think of where I must be, why am I here, and most strangely, who am I?

I walk into the connected room and search around. To my left there is a old door, boarded tightly; to my right, a half-broken door with the knob missing; in front of me more boarded windows. I walk up to the boarded door and try to pry off one the boards, but to no avail; I couldn't move them an inch from where they were nailed. I turn around and walk over to the half-broken door and easily push it open, I looks to be a small bathroom; a small tin tub in the back; to my left a sink; and to my right, a small glass toilet. I walk over to the sink and attempt to turn it on, a disgusting smelling brown water-like liquid pours out into the sink; I quickly turn the faucet off and step back from the porcelain sink. I turn to my right and walk up to the small, tin bathtub; I see a rustly crowbar in the bottom of the tub; I reach down to grab it and see a large cockroach run from underneath it. I then slowly picked up the heavy piece of metal and rose from the bathtub.

I turn around and walk out of the small dank bathroom into the room with the boarded door. I walk up to the door and start, with trouble, to pry off the five boards that are tightly nailed to the large wood door. After a struggling few minutes I pry the final board off and step back from the door; I am sweating and hot. I think about how long I've been awake, had it been five minutes? An hour? Days? I wasn't sure. I regain my wits and waltz back near the door and grab the gold-plated, rusted knob and try to open the door; after a small struggle, I manage to open the door, and see the connecting room. I look back and see the broken bathroom door and the boards on the floor behind me. I walk slowly into the room and see a large hole in the floor; to my right, more boarded windows, to my left, a large debris pile blocking a door, in front, a wall with paintings and a small door. I creep up to the large hole blocking me from the small door, and look down; it looked at least a five story fall.

I look around for a way across and see a old, rotting plank; I pick it up, unsure if I should use it to cross the dangerous gap. I set it across the gaping hole and slowly take one testing step to see if it is sturdy enough; it holds, but not very satisfyingly. I say a silent prayer and take my second step across, then my third, then my fourth. It seemed like the other side was miles away; I hear the board creak, then a crack; I jump with all my power and grab the other side of the hole; the plank, with a loud snap, breaks in half and falls the way down the crevice. I hurriedly and difficultly pull myself up onto the opposing side of the gap. I calm my breathing and look back down the hole, then turned around to see the small door.

I was tired, but I knew I couldn't rest yet; I came to the small door and turned the knob to open the door; it creaked loudly and swung open to reveal a winding staircase. It lead a far way down but had many broken steps. I thought of the choices; to stay here and die; or to go down the unsafe stairway and reach the bottom, or die from falling. I chose to go; I took my first step and it seemed somewhat stable, so I took to slowly walking down; it took me twenty minutes of stress, but I made it to the bottom unscathed. It appeared as if I was in some kind of apartment building. I came to a small room with a door, I walked to the door and opened it; the room connected was a long hall filled with doors to other rooms; it lead to two large doors at the end of the hall. I trotted forward looking at each room. After a minute, I came to the two doors, at least ten feet tall. I grab the large door handle and push the door open; light floods in and blinds me...

I wake up, I look around, it was my room. I knew who I was, where I was, and what year it was. I was breathing restlessly and was relieved. I then thought about my "dream". Was it a sign? I had never experienced something like that, I never even imagined something like that, I was baffled. I turned to look at the time; 3:30 a.m. exactly. I fell back into my bed and sat for what seemed hours, thinking about what had happened in my "dream". The next day, after a long, hard night of no sleep, I visited my psychologist, I explained the dream to her, she said she had heard similar cases before. A strange thing. It was called...

Hypnagogia


End file.
